Long-delayed new airport to open May 3
‘Judiciary won’t influence outcome of general election’
ISLAMABAD, April 19, (RTRS): A long-delayed new international airport for Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, is set to open on May 3, a civil aviation official said on Wednesday during an advance tour of the facility.
The new facility will replace cramped Benazir Bhutto International Airport, voted the worst airport in the world in 2014 by the “Guide to Sleeping in Airports” website.
The new Islamabad International Airport, 30 kilometers from the capital, will be capable of serving 9 million passengers per year and 50,000 metric tons of cargo.
It has been under construction for more than a decade, encountering repeated delays and missing deadlines for opening dating back to 2016. The May 3 opening date itself is a delay from the previous deadline of Friday.
“It has been decided that the operational date of the airport will be May 3 ... not April 20, as originally announced,” said Nadir Shafi Dar, director of planning and development for the Civil Aviation Authority.
The new airport will have runways capable of handling larger A380 jets that are now unable to land in the capital.
It will also have 15 air bridges to allow boarding directly from the terminal, instead passengers riding buses to all planes.
Pakistan’s largest TV station has been allowed back on the air at some major cable operators after talks with the military on demands it make changes in political coverage, two officials who work for the channel’s media group told Reuters on Wednesday.
After Geo TV, Pakistan’s most popular station, was taken off the air across much of the country at the end of March, military representatives pressed the channel to cease favourable coverage of ousted Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif and stop any criticism of the Supreme Court and the “establishment”, according to the two people, who had knowledge of the negotiations.
The “establishment” is a commonly used euphemism for the military in Pakistan.
Written instructions by Geo management to staff last week that were reviewed by Reuters spelled out “key editorial points that we have to manage and implement” to be restored to the airwaves.
Besides banning negative portrayals of the “establishment” and any allegations the Supreme Court might be interfering in politics, the instructions said there should be no reports on Nawaz Sharif’s ongoing corruption trial “that helps build a narrative that he and his children are innocent”.
The two sources, employees of The Jang Group of Newspapers, Geo’s parent company, said the company had reluctantly agreed to most of the military’s demands, although there was no final deal confirmed and the situation was in flux.
“As for the deal or tough conditions, we are following them and Geo has been restored. That restoration is the result of obeying those dictations,” one of the sources said on Wednesday.
Geo TV Network President Imran Aslam declined to answer questions about any military involvement in the shutdown or whether any deal had been made or was in the works.
A Geo spokesperson said in a statement: “Geo will always strive to provide both sides of the story and an independent editorial policy for which it has suffered in every regime, military and civilian.
“If we ever surrender on that independence we would rather shut down the channel ourselves,” added the spokesperson, who would not answer questions about any negotiations with the military.
The military’s press office did not respond to written questions and phone calls about whether it had pressured the cable operators. It also did not comment on the allegations that the military, or its powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) wing, made demands on Geo to alter its coverage or secured agreement to make any changes.
Pressure from Pakistan’s judiciary won’t influence the outcome of upcoming general elections this year, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal said on Wednesday, adding he hoped the election would be free and fair.
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s Supreme Court disqualified deposed prime minister
Nawaz Sharif of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party from holding office for life amid an ongoing corruption trial.
Sharif and his family have called the corruption proceedings a conspiracy and hinted at intervention by the military, but opponents have hailed them as a rare example of the rich and powerful being held accountable. The military denies any such intervention.
“We hope elections will be fair and free as the country can’t afford any crisis as a result, but recently there are some concerns due to the judicial activism and how the national accountability bureau has been pursuing cases against only one party,” the minister told Reuters, speaking at Pakistan’s High Commission in London.
He also highlighted complaints by media groups that they had not been allowed to broadcast.